The Blessed Hope - Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter

The timing of the Rapture is easily one of the most confusing and divisive issues within the Body of the Christ, something I've always considered extremely interesting.

It would seem to me that the issue of when He is coming is important only in understanding the signs of the times, but not terribly important in terms of salvation or issues of eternity, or even in terms of living a Spirit-filled life.

Taken separately from following Bible prophecy, believing in Who is coming, and the certainty of His return, are all that is truly necessary to be a Christian. The timing of that event itself, is largely one of academics.

That being said, we ARE students of Bible prophecy; watchmen on the wall, as I like to express it, and the timing of the Rapture is extremely important to understanding the signs of the times.

We see evidence all around us, and we use that evidence to warn of His soon return. To us, understanding the Rapture is understanding how to rightly divide the Word of Truth.

The key to rightly dividing the Word is understanding Dispensationalism and the division between the Age of the Law, the Age of Grace (Church Age) and the Tribulation (Daniel's 70th Week).

There are four basic interpretations of the Rapture; pre-Tribulational, mid-tribulational and post-tribulational and pre-Wrath.

Pre-Trib holds to the view the Lord returns BEFORE the Tribulation. Mid-Trib teaches that the Rapture of the Church will occur in the middle of the 7 year tribulation period. It will occur sometime around the abomination of desolation when the anti-Christ goes into the rebuilt Jewish temple and there claim to be God.

The Post-Trib view teaches that as the Lord Jesus is returning back to earth, God's people will be 'caught up' or raptured at that point in time. They will immediately return to earth with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Each of these views can be supported, to some degree, by Scripture, but only one, obviously, can be the correct view. I believe the one with the fewest Scriptural problems is the best candidate.

One of the problems with a mid-Trib view is glaring; it denies the doctrine of imminency. Although the Scriptures teach a SECRET coming, (no man knoweth the day or hour) once the Tribulation begins, one just has to sit down with a calendar. It will be no surprise and it will come at a known time.

Another problem with the mid-Trib Rapture view is that its followers aren't looking for Christ, they are watching for the anti-Christ, from whom they derive their timetable.

By contrast, I am awaiting Jesus Christ. I never expect to know who the antichrist will be, and frankly, I don't really care. My purpose, to the degree I even discuss the antichrist in your Omega Letter, is to demonstrate how the world is preparing for his coming -- and to remind people that Jesus is coming FIRST!

The mid-Tribulation view is not widely followed for these reasons, among others.

The post-Tribulation view shares the same problem as mid-Trib -- it denies the doctrine of imminency.

It will be even easier to pinpoint the return of Christ, given the Bible gives the exact number of days between the 'abomination of desolation' (Matthew 24:15; 2nd Thessalonians 2:4) and the return of the Messiah.

"And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days." (Daniel 12:11)

Compare that to Jesus' Words; "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. " (Matthew 24:36) If the post-Trib view is correct, that secret is hidden only until the revelation of antichrist.

So it shares the same second flaw with the mid-Trib view; both of these interpretations make the coming of antichrist the seminal event in prophecy, with the secret coming of Christ for His Church a secondary Plan.

The post-Tribulation view also doesn't pass the logic test. The post-Trib interpretation is that Jesus Raptures the Church, who then return with Him at the Battle of Armageddon.

"And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." (Revelation 19:14) The 'fine linen, white and clean' are the garments of those Washed in the Blood of the Lamb.

So, Jesus leaves heaven with 'ten thousands' of empty white horses. As He descends, God's people are Raptured, presumably translated from this earth to the back of a white horse on its way back!

The next problem with this view is what happens next. According to Scripture, the earth is repopulated during the Millennial Kingdom period.

If all God's people are raptured as the Lord Jesus returns that will leave only the wicked on earth when He returns. The wicked will be destroyed as they will NEVER inherit the kingdom of God.

So if the wicked are destroyed and God's people are all raptured then who will be left to enter into the 1000 year Kingdom?

When people go into the 1000 year kingdom they will not have their eternal bodies but will be just like we are today.

They will marry and have children. After the rapture all God's people will have their eternal bodies leaving no mortals left on earth to go into the 1000 year kingdom.

The post-Trib view is widely received, despite its problems. It's adherents generally also believe that Israel plays no important role in the last days, since the promises of God to Israel were passed on to the Church after the Jews rejected their Messiah.

That is also one of the reasons that post-Tribulationists are so hostile to Dispensationalists and pre-Tribulationists; our 'wrong-headed' support for Israel based on our belief that God has a Plan for Israel that doesn't include the Church.

It explains the blatantly anti-Semitic nature of many mainstream churches. It is at the root of the 'Christian anti-semitism' that was responsible for centuries of persecution of the Jews by the Church.

It explains the 'Christ-killer' label that is used to incite anti-Semitic actions and to justify anti-Semitism as a worldview. To some Christians, the crowd's demands, "Then answered all the people, and said, His Blood be on us, and on our children," (Matthew 27:25) carries more weight than Jesus Himself, when He said, " Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," (Luke 23:34)

That is not intended to characterize all people who hold to a post-Tribulation worldview, but explain the teachings of post-Tribulationalism and some of the reasons for their hostility to the pre-Tribulationist view.

The fourth view is the most recent, being advanced in the late 1980's by Florida evangelist Marv Rosenthal. It attempts to define the point when the Great Tribulation begins. Pre-Wrath puts the Rapture at a point just after the Sixth Seal.

This view also has its share of problems. For one, it denies the doctrine of imminency. The Rapture cannot take place today. It could not take place tomorrow. The Rapture cannot take place next week, next month or next year or even the year after that!

The Rapture will occur immediately prior to the Day of the Lord and the Day of the Lord will begin with the opening of the seventh seal. The Rapture will occur on the very day that the Day of the Lord begins. We're still years away from the Day of the Lord, (even if Israel were to sign antichrist's treaty tomorrow morning.)

Rosenthal divides the 70th Week of Daniel into three distinct periods. The first three and one half years are "the beginnings of sorrows" period. The second is the Great Tribulation, which beings at the middle of the 70th Week.

In his book, "The Pre-Wrath Rapture" (Thomas Nelson Books, 1990) Rosenthal defines the Great Tribulation as "man's wrath against man" not God's. (page 105)

According to this view, the Day of the Lord must be clearly distinguished from the Great Tribulation. These two time periods are distinct and separate and do not overlap. They both occur during the last 3½ years, beginning with the Great Tribulation and followed immediately by the Day of the Lord.

It is uncertain when the Great Tribulation ends and when the Day of the Lord begins because THIS is the event of which no man knows the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36)

The Church will be on earth when the Antichrist makes a treaty with Israel which marks the beginning of the 70th week. The Church must enter the 70th week and go through the "beginnings of sorrows."

The Church must be on earth during the entire period called the Great Tribulation ("the time of Jacob’s trouble") and will not be Raptured until after the Great Tribulation is over, but immediately prior to the Day of the Lord.

Therefore, the Church must be on earth for saints to decide if they will accept the mark of Antichrist.

Assessment:

The Dispensationalist, pre-Tribulationist view of the Rapture is the only one consistent with the teachings of the Scriptures. It allows for a secret, signless, Rapture of the Church, as taught by Our Lord.

It teaches that the Restrainer of evil is removed (the indwelt, Spirit-filled Church) which allows for the unrestrained evil of the antichrist. While the Holy Spirit will remain on the earth during the Tribulation, the Church does not.

The pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church is not awaiting the antichrist, it is awaiting the Christ, which is wholly consistent with Scriptures that promise a special crown for those who await His coming.

Everything harmonizes with the Scriptures without the necessity to allegorize or spiritualize a literal teaching in order to make it work.

Now to the point. Every day we attempt to document some current event relevant to Bible prophecy. In point of fact, we haven't documented a single FULFILLMENT of a Bible prophecy since the restoration of Israel in 1948 -- and that is a prophecy in the process of fulfillment. Israel has been restored, the Jews regathered to their ancient homeland, but their national redemption is yet future.

What we are witnessing are more like shadows in the sense that one can see a shadow of a man, but not his features. From the shadow, you can identify with certainty that it is of a man, but that is about all you can say for sure.

Paul describes it as 'seeing through a glass darkly';

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (1 Corinthians 13:12)

There are things we know, and there are things unknown. We know, for example, that the government of the antichrist during the Tribulation will control the global economy, global government and global religious system.

While we don't know who he is, the development, in this generation, of these three distinct systems, casts the shadow of the antichrist.

We know that the world will be divided into four distinct spheres of world power; Gog-Magog, the Kings of the East, the Kings of the South and the revived Roman Empire. The Bible makes no mention of a fifth, overarching superpower.

We see the development of those four Biblical spheres of global power, while the future of America is tenuous, to say the least.

We see, in part, and we know in part, but darkly.

We are seeing shadows of the coming Tribulation - we're not there, yet.

The signs of His coming, and the unfolding of Bible prophecy, were given as a sign to a 'wicked and adulterous generation' which 'seeketh after a sign'.

We see through a glass, darkly. We know things in part, and we see shadows in the signs of what is to come.

The Bible says that these events are NOT fulfilled until the Tribulation Period begins. These events were given, not as a warning, but as an encouragement the Church through the ages, and in particular, the Church of the last days.

The Apostle Paul called it "the Blessed Hope."